1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to driving tools for driving fasteners, such as nails.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known pneumatic nailers for driving nails have magazines for storing a plurality of nails. In general, nails stored in the magazine are fed one by one into a nail guide passage formed in a tool body. The nail guide passage is called a “driver guide.” Some of known magazines are configured to store in a coiled state a series of wire-connected nails (known as a “collated nail”), in which nails are connected by wires at regular intervals. As disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-15589, some of other known magazines are configured to store a series of directly connected nails known as a “brad nail”, in which nails are temporarily directly connected in parallel to each other in a form of a flat plate. In this specification, a serially connected nails including a collated nail and the brad nail will be hereinafter collectively referred to as a strip nail.
In the case of a magazine for storing a brad nail, the magazine is generally configured to extend between a driver guide of a tool body and an end portion of a handle in order to enable to store nails of the brad nail as many as possible and to provide a compact design. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, the magazine may be arranged such that the feeding direction (indicated by arrow S in FIG. 9) of the brad nail N is inclined relative to a direction perpendicular to the driving direction (indicated by arrow H in FIG. 9) of the nails.
Because the feeding direction S within the magazine is inclined relative to the direction perpendicular to the driving direction H, the brad nail N naturally has a configuration as shown in FIG. 9, in which nails n are temporarily directly connected to each other such that two adjacent nails n are displaced by a little distance from each other in the axial direction, so that the brad nail N has a configuration like a flat plate having a substantially lozenge shape.
In the case that a feeding direction of a brad nail from a magazine is perpendicular to a driving direction from a tool body, nails in the brad nail may not be necessary to be displaced from each other in their axial directions, and therefore, the heads of the nails may be aligned with each other.
However, as explained above with reference to FIG. 9, in the case that the feeding direction S of the brad nail N from the magazine is inclined relative to a direction perpendicular to the driving direction H from the tool body, two adjacent nails n are positioned so as to be displaced by a little distance relative to each other in their axial directions.
In the case of the brad nail N shown in FIG. 9, it may be possible that the brad nail N is loaded into the magazine in an improper orientation (back to front with respect to the feeding direction S) as shown in FIG. 10. If the brad nail N is loaded in the improper orientation, the nails n in the brad nail N are positioned such that their axial directions are do not parallel to the driving direction H of the tool body. Therefore, when the tool body is operated to drive the nails in this state, it may be possible that the frontmost nail n is clogged within the drive passage, resulting in an improper driving operation. For this reason, it is necessary for the operator to take care that the brad nail N is properly oriented when the brad nail N is loaded into the magazine.
Therefore, there has been a need in the art for a driving tool that can ensure that a fastener strip is loaded in a magazine in a proper orientation.